Well, he did not say, "No," and he did not say, "I'm out of here." For the Raptors, embarking on a mega-gamble as this season starts with new star Kawhi Leonard in the fold, that's a good start.

It's also a low, low bar for what makes a successful media day press conference. But for the first time since the blockbuster trade that finally sent Leonard out of San Antonio, Leonard faced the tape-recorder crowd and was asked whether he plans to stick around in Toronto for the long haul.

"I look at it as a day-to-day process," Leonard told the gathered Raptors media. "Like I said, my focus is on this year, this group that I have and striving to get to a championship. We all want to win. If you look to the future, you're gonna trip over the present. So, I am focused on this year, tomorrow, and just keep going after that."

As an organization, the Raptors can accept this notion of living in the present. It's all they can do. But the entirety of the NBA knows that Leonard can be a free agent in just a little more than nine months, and, off the record, most executives will say that Leonard is likely to bolt when July 1 hits, either for the Lakers or Clippers.

That's the battle Toronto president Masai Ujiri is fighting - Leonard has told folks he wants to be in LA, and Ujiri needs to spearhead a yearlong charge that gets Leonard to change his mind. He made an enormous gamble in the spring when he fired coach Dwane Casey after a 59-win season, then dealt away star guard DeMar DeRozan for Leonard, who arrived in the North with plenty of baggage.

Leonard was asked about that baggage by a San Antonian on Monday, about whether he regretted the way things ended with the Spurs and whether he had lost faith in the San Antonio medical staff after his quad injury wound up lingering throughout the season and limited him to nine games.

"I have no regrets," Leonard said. "But I want to focus on this team, this journey that we have in front of us today. Just stay in the present time and not look back."

That is an answer you can print, laminate and pull out whenever Leonard is asked about the Spurs, because it's all Leonard is going to say about last season, no matter how he is asked. Things were messy between Leonard and the Spurs as he withdrew from the team over the course of last season, and they got downright ugly when he would not meet solo with coach Gregg Popovich this summer as his representatives pushed for a trade.

The preferred destination was, of course, Los Angeles, but Ujiri came in with the Leonard trade anyway, hoping a sterling 2018-19 season could convince Leonard to sign long-term. No matter what Toronto has planned to woo Leonard this winter, nothing will matter as much as winning, and that might require the Raptors to break through and reach the NBA Finals for the first time in team history.

Anything short of the Finals could make Leonard an easy target in free agency next summer.

Initially, Leonard was said to be displeased with his new team, but apparently has softened, and he is at least willing to give the Raptors a fair shake over the coming months. That was all the commitment he was prepared to make on Monday, though.

"I want to play here," Leonard said, with some hesitation. "As long as I have on a jersey, I want to play basketball. I came here with an open mind. I want to do great things. I am going to make sure that I put all my effort on the court each and every night, and I want to win games. This is how you get star-caliber players to want to come here and play."

But left unsaid was this: Will it be enough to get a star-caliber player like Leonard to stay?